My MacGyver’ed Everyday-Carry Kit

 

A tiny jewelry case

I knew it would come to this. As much as I’d like to have more mixed-media materials on hand when I’m sketching on location, the various supplemental kits I’d been trying the past several weeks just weren’t working. I don’t mind carrying an auxiliary tote bag on sketch outings for things like a larger sketchbook and a water bottle, but having to fuss with a supplemental tool case inside the tote is a fumbly problem. My everyday-carry bag on the left; a tote on the right; going back and forth and forgetting which tool is on which side, all while standing on a sidewalk – AACCKK!

It was time to go back to the drawing board.

My goal: Eliminate a supplemental case and instead carry a few mixed-media materials in my usual Rickshaw pen case, which fits so nicely inside my everyday-carry Rickshaw bag (both shown in this post).

My problem: Every time I’ve tried to carry a few Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons in the pen case, the short crayons would be difficult to dig out of the case, or they would fall down horizontally and no longer be visible.

With that basic problem identified, I looked for a solution that would somehow raise the crayons in the pen case so that they would be visible like the taller pens and pencils. The solution would also have to be narrow enough that the crayons couldn’t fall down sideways.

Those of you who sew can probably see an easy solution: Make a small fabric pocket inside the pen case. Sadly, I no longer have a sewing machine, nor any fabric scraps (all sewing things unused for many years, they were downsized). I’m also lazy.

Amazingly, I found something that was exactly the right dimensions: A tiny fabric case intended to hold jewelry during travel (top of post). I have never used it for that purpose, but when it was given to me years ago, it seemed like something I might someday have a use for. That day finally came.

Six crayons fit perfectly and can't fall down sideways.

Six Neocolor crayons fit perfectly and can’t fall down sideways. Breakage would still be an issue, but I might consider swapping in a couple of Derwent Inktense Blocks instead of Neos at some point. As a trial, I’ve simply clipped the jewelry case to the upper edge of the pen case. If it works out, I’ll sew it into place permanently (thankfully, I do still have a hand-sewing kit).

Clipped into place for now.

As for the kit’s contents, I started over completely. With crayons coming in, some pencils had to come out. It was a good opportunity to cull a couple of unused pens that had crept in over time, too. The current selection is shown below.

Following my general color guidelines, I chose a warm and a cool of each hue in a mix of Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils and Neocolor II crayons. Several choices still fall in the category of ones I wouldn’t normally “see” in my typical urban landscape, so I’m hoping they still push me outside my usual box.

The two non-soluble pencils are Derwent Drawing pencils in Chocolate and Grape. Those two pink Neocolors are for spring blossoms, of course. The swatches were trials to see what kinds of greens I could mix with the palette’s yellow and blues.

Newly MacGyver'ed kit: Let's see how this goes.

A Wallingford Street (Plus Supplemental Kit Fail)

 

2/11/26 Wallingford neighborhood

Back in the day when I used to sketch all winter from my mobile studio, this was a favorite street scene type: Trees, cars, utility poles and wires with bonus backlighting – the type I could sketch easily while parked. After I started doing much of my urban sketching while fitness walking (beginning in 2019), I mostly stopped sketching from my car. I’ve missed this kind of “nothing” view – nothing of particular interest, but so quintessential of a residential Seattle street. Even though it’s not my street or even my neighborhood, it speaks of home and familiarity like nothing else does. Ironically, I was taking a fitness walk through the Wallingford neighborhood when I came upon this scene, and I stood between parked cars to capture it.

Too many colors; cumbersome case

Media and color notes: Although I’m generally satisfied with the results here, I have a couple of complaints. This was my first on-location sketch using my newly evaluated and downsized mixed-media kit. The addition of all the Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons to my usual daily-carry colored pencils has given me too many color options: I took too long dithering about choices, and I also used too many colors, resulting in an incohesive palette. I should have stuck with no more than three to five at a time, which had been my rule when I first started experimenting with values-based hues.

The most significant complaint, though, is that the kit is still too much to hold when I’m (literally) on the street. One culprit is the Rickshaw Sinclair, which accommodates more crayons than I need or want access to. Even worse, I am constantly fumbling with the depth of the case, which makes the crayons difficult to reach. The injury added to insult was that when I kept trying to fold down the Sinclair’s edges to reach the crayons, stress was applied to the Derwent Drawing pencils on the other side, and all three points chipped! (Since I’ve been daily-carrying a few Drawing pencils, I have found that those super-soft cores break easily compared to most other high-quality pencils. Unfortunately, dropping implements is an unavoidable hazard of urban sketching!)

Just as I knew I would, I’ve returned to the same point yet again (as I have many times before): I must find a way to get everything I want to use into my daily-carry, or the excess will cause more frustration than mixed-media joy. ARRGGHH!

Discovering a Tree Character

2/9/26 photo reference and imagination

Looking for more ways to avoid doomscrolling, I watched a new video from Steve Mitchell’s Mind of Watercolor YouTube channel. Although I’m not using watercolor much lately, I often find Steve’s approaches to sketching, painting and mixed media inspiring. In this video, he draws an imaginary tree character inspired by fantasy book illustrations.

Scrolling through my “trees” folder of photos, mostly taken on neighborhood walks, I found one with a spectacular twisted trunk (at left). This tree seemed to be a character already – all I had to do was exaggerate its shape a bit (but not much) and add a face. The face was easy enough to draw, but I admire the way Steve “sculpted” the face of his tree more dimensionally. I’d like to work on doing more of that.

Another fun challenge was interpreting the “light logic” for the imaginary areas of the tree and the face. Since the reference photo was taken on an overcast day, I didn’t have much to go on, so I had to squint hard, choose the light direction and make it consistent for the parts I imagined. Steve seemed to be working from a variety of references and maybe mostly imagination, but it’s obvious that his vast experience has given him a strong sense of light logic. I wish he had talked about this challenging aspect of imaginary drawing, but it probably comes intuitively for him.

2/10/26 photo references and imagination

The next evening, I tried it again (at right), this time with two reference photos: a different tree and an Earthsworld face. Working on making the face more dimensional was definitely easier with a reference photo (and it was extremely low pressure to use the reference for inspiration only and not have to think about resemblance). As with previous experiments in drawing from imagination, I want the result to look convincing as a 3-dimensional object in space, even if the subject is obviously fanciful.

Anyway, these are a ton of fun, and I plan to do more. They work my imagination, which is always hard for me, especially in the evening when I’m tired, but most of it is comfortable and familiar. 

Isn’t it amazing that these tree trunks are not fantastical at all – they are real! The trees are both outside my immediate neighborhood, so I’m not sure if I can find them again, but I hope to someday draw at least one of them realistically from life.

Endangered

 

2/6/26 palm cockatoo, Woodland Park Zoo

On one of our couple days of “false spring” last week, I took my fitness walk around Woodland Park Zoo. I told myself I’d make one brisk circuit of the zoo grounds first without sketching, then go back to sketch, but I couldn’t resist stopping when I got to the Conservation Aviary. One of my favorite zoo exhibits, it’s home to several free-roaming and -flying birds that are all, very sadly, endangered. It’s possible to observe the birds fairly closely, and unlike tiny birds, these exotic beauties move relatively slowly, so they are more easily sketchable.

Great argus

Southern ground hornbill and Humboldt penguins

More penguins

After finishing my walk, I ended my visit at the Humboldt penguin exhibit, another favorite. They, too, are endangered, so my theme for the day ended up being endangered birds.

Stepping back from the exhibit, I decided to catch a few human gestures, too (below). The young boy who repeatedly squatted to see the swimming penguins was fun to try to capture! (I often practice squatting during yoga and nearly daily as part of my fitness routine, and I envied how easy he made squatting look! I guess it is when you’re 3!)

Watching the penguins

Paper notes: I knew that toothy Hahnemühle would be a bit too strong with super-soft Derwent Drawing pencils, but I tried it anyway. It wore down my pencils like sandpaper, and it was difficult to draw any fine details like eyes. Although I didn’t mind Stillman & Birn Beta’s milder tooth when I was making landscapes, I don’t care for Hahnemühle. I would have enjoyed smooth S&B Zeta much more, but I don’t like using wet media on that. I’d have to either decide which type of material to use that day and bring the appropriate sketchbook, or bring both sketchbooks everywhere, just in case. Arrggh! (More first world mixed-media problems.)

When I got to the quick human gestures at the end of my visit, I pulled out my current daily-carry Field Notes, which contains their typically smooth, all-purpose paper. That turned out to be quite lovely with a Drawing pencil, which went down as fast and smooth as a marker.

Supplemental Mixed-Media Kit Refresh

 

Multiple bag dumps

After writing yesterday’s post, I realized there was no reason to wait to pare down my mixed-media kit if I had any intention of using it in the field again. First, I did a multiple-bag dump: All the mixed-media tools I had assembled at my reading chair (for doomscrolling prevention), all the materials I had recently brought on location and found to be too much, and the color portion of my usual daily-carry. The first two batches are shown in the photo above.

Shown below is the color part of my current daily-carry, which is mostly the same as the wacky palette I had assembled a few weeks ago (with the optimistic addition of pink after I spotted plum blossoms last week!). Not shown are the brush pen, marker, white Gelly Roll and waterbrush that rarely change.

The color part of my everyday-carry. (Apologies for the uneven lighting in today's photos. It's the one drawback of my current studio downstairs compared to the former studio upstairs: I can't find a spot where light isn't coming in from one window or another unless I remember to do all my photography in the early morning.)

Here are my selection strategies: The daily-carry must stand alone in terms of color range. Pencils are the most physically robust, lightweight and versatile, so they are still the mainstay.  

For the supplemental mixed-media kit that I bring along with a Hahnemühle sketchbook, I kept values and temperature in mind but did not strictly maintain a warm and a cool in lights, mediums and darks. If I have a hue in one medium, I don’t need a similar or identical one in another medium. I also considered all the colors in my daily-carry and tried not to duplicate anything there. Finally, I’m still choosing most hues that I wouldn’t typically see in my urban environment, just to stay awake and not color by autopilot.   

As much as I enjoy using Derwent Inktense Blocks, I recently broke another one without even dropping them, so I’ve decided they are too fragile for the road (unless I carry them in a heavy, clanky tin, which I have no intention of doing). Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons and a few Derwent Drawing pencils are a good mix of water-soluble and non-soluble. Shown below is the newly slimmed-down supplemental kit.

Supplemental mixed-media kit

My tiny Sendak is too tiny for all of these, so I’m back to my Rickshaw Sinclair pen case, which I used briefly last summer to carry Neo II crayons (below). It’s not ideal, but it will do for now.

The Neo II crayons fit in a single row. I'm hoping that will keep them from being too bulky and also keep them from falling down horizontally, which makes them much harder to dig out.

My Rickshaw Sinclair

This process required much hemming and hawing. However, my everyday-carry kit had been stable for a long time before this recent rekindling of mixed-media interest. I admit that I enjoyed this first-world drama.

Incidentally, if you are part of the stationery universe, you’re probably familiar with the Japanese term techo kaigi (literally “planner meeting”: a meeting with yourself about your planner). It refers to the process of reflecting on one’s planners and notebooks to help decide which products and how to use them in the upcoming year. We urban sketchers need our own term for the similar process we go through constantly with our sketch kits. Sketchy media kaigi? Art material kaigi? Portable kit kaigi? Not too catchy. Let me know if you have ideas.

Mixed Media on My Walk

 

2/4/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

After my experiments strategically combining water-soluble and non-soluble materials at home, I carried the same variety of tools with me on my fitness walk. It was certainly more than I would ever typically use on location, let alone while out for a walk, but I was eager to see how the experiment would go in the field.

I wanted to keep the house sharp, so I drew it with a non-soluble Derwent Drawing pencil. For everything else, I used nearly the full water-soluble arsenal I had with me: Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils and Neocolor II crayons, and Derwent Inktense pencils. I activated the tree trunk and fence first with a waterbrush so I could keep them fairly crisp, too. Then I used a spritzer to activate the foliage.

I had stood on the sidewalk as usual, but I used a low brick wall nearby to set down my tool pouch. It felt a little cumbersome, but I managed. I carried all the same materials the next day at the Volunteer Park USk outing, and it felt like a lot to hold then, too.

I’ll probably pare down the mixed-media arsenal with fewer colors of each and fewer types. Or I’ll again decide it’s just easier to leave the “mixed” for home use and stick with watercolor pencils on location. (I’ve been here before, and most likely I’ll keep cycling back as I continually test the balance between portability and my craving for variety!)

The Collective Joy of Super Bowl

 

2/8/26 Pre-game snacking and sketching at Project 9 Brewing Co., Maple Leaf neighborhood

I have an unusual perspective on the Super Bowl game that captured the country’s (and especially Seattle’s) attention last Sunday: It was my first time watching one.

An hour before I was to leave for the game, I realized
I couldn't go to a sports bar on Super Bowl
Sunday without wearing Seahawks gear!
Thankfully, my neighbor across the street had
exactly what I needed.

It’s probably stating the obvious to say that I have no interest in any sports, nor have I ever. In fact, when I was in college, I used to feel resentful that sports received so much funding and attention while liberal arts programs were barely hanging on. Over the years, my attitude mellowed to basic indifference, and I note the date of the Super Bowl only to take advantage of empty stores and light traffic.

As I’ve grown older, my lack of interest in sports has not changed, but I’ve learned to appreciate the bonding mechanism that sports provide in our culture. Beginning with a Mariners game I watched last fall, I realized that I could observe fandom energy the way an anthropologist studies a culture – with sketchbook in hand.

I invited Ching and Natalie to join me at Project 9 Brewing Co., my neighborhood brew pub, to watch and sketch the big game. Arriving early enough to find seats in the huge venue, we found an ideal table: It was at a bad angle from the TV screens, so it would not appeal to most patrons, but we could face Seahawks fans without their noticing us sketching them!

For a different viewpoint, I sometimes walked out to the entirely empty heated patio where no screens could be seen, but I could sketch other patrons easily.

In general, I didn’t understand what was going on (though Natalie tried her best to explain the rules to me), but it was fun to observe the explosive exclamations of joy or disappointment with each score or fumble. (The three of us left after half time, so I missed the final triumph. It must have been an ear-shattering roar, but I appreciated it from a distance when I heard fireworks in the neighborhood.)

Aside from the game, I was moved by the significance of the primary half-time entertainer, the Puerto Rican performer known as Bad Bunny, who sang entirely in Spanish (apparently a historic first at the Super Bowl). During the past year when all immigrants, especially Spanish speakers, have been oppressed and tortured, I hope we all heard the message of Bad Bunny’s exuberant, proud performance: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Even without being a Seahawks fan, I appreciate the collective joy and celebration that the team’s triumph gave Seattle. This year, we needed this, more than ever.